To eBay, or not to eBay, that is the question...

[Allen]

I wanna sell something. It's worth a few hundred quid so I want to get a good price for it, but more importantly I want to actually get the money and not get scammed. Therefore, I went to a shop that buys stuff (what Americans would call a pawn shop I guess) and they obviously offered about 60% of it's value for the item. So I need to know if I should use eBay for selling it.

The problem is, it's a phone, so I can't sell it here on Hexus, it looks like I will have to rely on eBay... Now, I know that some people use eBay all the time and never have problems, but I also know that sometimes it doesn't go as well as it should and people lose out. I absolutely cannot have this happen due to my financial situation.

Ever since eBay forced the use of PayPal I have steered well clear of it, but it looks like I have no choice now. Is there anything I can do to guarantee I won't, or at least limit the chances I will get done over?

I was thinking maybe something like adding a disclaimer that I wouldn't send out the goods until the money had cleared from PayPal into my bank account, but would something like that make people avoid buying from me?

[Rob_B]

ebay/paypal fees will take at least 15% of the final value so bear that in mind, adding postage is this shop giving you 60% that far off what you'd end up with from eBay?

I still use eBay & have taken a few risks buying/selling phones but I'd find it tricky to recommend.
Obviously it's a good place to get a decent price but for a high value phone I'd be unlikely to do it myself. Moving the funds to your account before posting guarantees you nothing. Best security measures are to make note of the IMEI (so you could block it if ripped off) ensure your eBay settings are strict as to who can buy from you (ie same country, no negs/etc) & general common sense.

Try gumtree/another forum/CEX ?

[Allen]

ebay/paypal fees will take at least 15% of the final value so bear that in mind, adding postage is this shop giving you 60% that far off what you'd end up with from eBay?

I still use eBay & have taken a few risks buying/selling phones but I'd find it tricky to recommend.
Obviously it's a good place to get a decent price but for a high value phone I'd be unlikely to do it myself. Moving the funds to your account before posting guarantees you nothing. Best security measures are to make note of the IMEI (so you could block it if ripped off) ensure your eBay settings are strict as to who can buy from you (ie same country, no negs/etc) & general common sense.

Try gumtree/another forum/CEX ?

CEX is where I took it and they offered what appears to be about 60% of the price they are selling for on eBay, and about half what they themselves were trying to sell it for.

eBay and PayPal fees are 15%?? Seriously??? Sod that then, they can go fish.

Will take a look at Gumtree I guess, dunno where else I could go.

[Allen]

Wow, just looked into it. You get charged for listing the item (£7.95 for phones), you get charged if someone buys your item (10%) and you also get charged 3.4% for receiving the money through PayPal.

Damn, what absolute RIPOFF merchants... who would still use them with those fees??? If I sold it for what I think it's worth, I would lose ~£50!!

[golwg]

Plus you could get ripped off big time on Ebay. I stay away from there.

[SiM]

sell it on avforums

[azrael316]

Or you could head over to Game On and sell it over there. No restrictions on selling phones there.

[TooNice]

The price of listing is not a big deal given that they run those 10p listing now and then. I am not sure if it's still the case, but Paypal personal doesn't charge fees, and I would make clear that is the only type of account I have. So the 'commission' for selling the item is really the nasty part, and it's gotten worse over the year. Still, the things I've sold on Ebay often end up with a higher bid than I've expected (there were even the odd time where selling refurbs netted me more cash than what I bought the item for).

[Rob_B]

The price of listing is not a big deal given that they run those 10p listing now and then. I am not sure if it's still the case, but Paypal personal doesn't charge fees, and I would make clear that is the only type of account I have. So the 'commission' for selling the item is really the nasty part, and it's gotten worse over the year. Still, the things I've sold on Ebay often end up with a higher bid than I've expected (there were even the odd time where selling refurbs netted me more cash than what I bought the item for).

- Listing fees are an issue if there is no deal on (like now)

- No Paypal fee for personal payments, payment received from eBay sales will be charged. You can't just say 'send it me as a gift' especially since only an idiot buyer would buy in that way as they'd have no protection.

- Yep, still the best place to advertise to a wide audience though

[b0redom]

Amazon. I sold an HTC TyTN. You tend to get a much better class of buyer, in my experience.

[Sputnik]

I don't bother selling anything on Ebay now. One reason is because of the costs involved and the main reason is because the last 2 items I sold I got 'idiot' customers.

The first one was laughable, I offered postage at actual cost and the guy disputed it (a massive £1-50 something). He said he would only pay it once I'd sent him proof of postage

Then the very last one was a CPU I sold to someone who asked if I could post it the same day as he urgently needed it. When he got it he wrote me a snotty message saying there was something wrong with it as it had 'poor' performance and that I knew it was faulty - He then went on to say, That although it performed inline with the benchmarks for that CPU, He was disappointed with it's performance ! And to add insult to injury they stopped sellers from leaving negative feedback for buyers.

Have you tried those mobile phone sites that buy mobiles?

[TooNice]

- No Paypal fee for personal payments, payment received from eBay sales will be charged. You can't just say 'send it me as a gift' especially since only an idiot buyer would buy in that way as they'd have no protection.

It's been a while since I've used Paypal to receive money. I know that previously (if the system is no longer in place) it was not a case of asking the seller to 'send as gift'. The difference between a personal account and a business one is that the business one allows the receipt of payment by card directly, while the personal did not (or I think it's just two or three transactions per year). So basically if a person pay by card, I won't be able to accept payment before I upgrade the account, something I clearly state that I am not willing to do. The buyer can however use the fund already in their account to pay (either by transferring fund or they are existing sellers with some fund), and the charge is either reduced or voided (forgot which). End result is cheaper fees at least, and the buyer is still protected.

It may well be that the system has changed though. The 'send by gift' did not exist back then.

[mikemikemi]

I suppose the issue with ebay is that it's ebay, you get the benefits of more people and potentially more money.

But with that come higher fees and idiot buyers.

It's a trade-off, I sold some stuff recently; luckily, managed to sell stuff for more than I thought I'd get and only one picky customer that disputed the postage fee.

[Behemoth]

I'll buy stuff from ebay, but I won't sell anything there anymore. The last item I sold I got rinsed so harshly for fee's it was un real. I put up my USB mixer as I no longer used it and it wasn't compatible with Windows 7 or Vista.

I got £60 for it, by the time I'd paid out postage (I stupidly advertised it with FREE postage) £20, paid the listing fee of £4, and then there was ebay's fee's for actually selling the thing £16 ! and then a further £3 for taking the money out of pay pal, out of a £60 sale I had about £13 left.

[Moutain]

I always buy things from ebay.feel ebay is good.

[SammEl]

I'll buy stuff from ebay, but I won't sell anything there anymore. The last item I sold I got rinsed so harshly for fee's it was un real. I put up my USB mixer as I no longer used it and it wasn't compatible with Windows 7 or Vista.

I got £60 for it, by the time I'd paid out postage (I stupidly advertised it with FREE postage) £20, paid the listing fee of £4, and then there was ebay's fee's for actually selling the thing £16 ! and then a further £3 for taking the money out of pay pal, out of a £60 sale I had about £13 left.

That's actually a joke, eScam more like.

eBay used to rule the internet, what the hell happened?

I have bought three items second hand online, all pretty good deals, and not one on ebay.

1) N64, 3 controllers, 20 games, 3 memory cards, 1 rumble from Bit-Tech = £30 (About a £80 set)
2) Wavebird from Play Trade = £10 (£30 or more normally if you can find one)
3) Watch from HotUKDeals = £35 (if bought new, is around £80)

So many alternatives to eBay.